Dimapur, MAY 23 (MExN): Nagaland, particularly its music scene has caught the attention of the British Council – the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Tasneem Vahanvaty, Head of Business Development for the Arts, British Council India (BCI), who was part of a three-member team from the BCI to Nagaland, spoke of her wish to promote the music scene in Nagaland.
During a stopover in Dimapur on Thursday, she visited the Jumping Bean accompanied by Gugs Chishi, Director of the Music Task Force, and savoured the taste of what musicians in Nagaland have in offer. She is reported to have had a similar exposure in Kohima two evenings ago. The purpose of BCI’s visit was to explore the possibility of building a bridge: creating a synergy of sorts between artists here and from other parts of the country, as well as the United Kingdom; promotion (of the artists and their music) and building greater human-to-human relations being the intended goal.
According to Vahanvaty, she has been following the ‘Nagaland music scene’ for a while now and got really interested to find out its potential and explore its entrepreneurial talent. Based on her visit, she said, “(There’s) so much of potential here in Nagaland which is yet to be discovered.” Further encouraged by the Nagaland government’s initiative to promote music, she remarked, Nagaland is “probably, the only state in the country where the state government supports music and that too contemporary.” She informed that artistes from the UK will also be invited for this year’s Hornbill Festival.
MTF director, Gugs Chishi, said that their visit was the result of the British Council inviting the MTF to attend the Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow, Scotland during January-February earlier this year. The idea now is to take the benefit of where the relationship will lead to, he added, taking confidence in the British Council’s known interest in the arts.
Besides, exposing the Naga musicians to a wider audience, another important characteristic of the partnership will be to further the skills of musicians through their interactions with other musicians from a variety of places with their own kind of style; and music from Nagaland building a niche for itself in the wider world. It is only the beginning built on the hope that it will spawn greater avenues for music and artistes here, he said.
Chishi further disclosed the MTF has come with a new concept of music promotion which is already in work. The idea is to promote the artistes as well as the promoters (places and people who give performers a platform) through incentives from the government or the MTF. Under this concept, a monthly package of Rs. 30,000 will be provided for each promoter; allowing them as well as the performers to gain something. As of now, the MTF have identified four promoters of the kind (where live music is a feature) in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung.
